Woven tubular fabric



y 1949- c. si COLE 2,475,012

WOVEN TUBULAR FABRIC Filed Oct. 11, 1947 2 Sheets-Sheet l I b 4 P 1 b 4 INVEN TOR. 616644? [J J. (01E M vn'w .ATTORNEY July 5, 1949. c. s. COLE 2,475,012

WOVEN TUBULAR FABRIC Filed Oct. 11, 1947 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 WITH] HUT" mm mm] [WI] mrm ig; I fimr j 4%? N N Emu? g lllfill l W r 1116111 1 III IHHH IN VEN TOR. man J. 0415 ATTORNEY Patented July 5, 1949 WOVEN TUBULAR FABRIC Charles Schneider ,Cole, Sandy Hook, Conn., as-

signor to Fabric Fire Hose Company, Sandy Hook, Conn., a corporation of New York Application October 11, 1947, Serial No. 779,244

3 Claims.

This invention relates to woven tubular fabrics and more particularly to woven tubular hose such as fire hose or other types of hose capable of withstanding high internal pressure.

Woven tubular fabrics formed of longitudinally extending warp threads interwoven with helically disposed weft threads have been manufactured for years, but the pitch of the weft threads causes the hose made of such woven fabric to twist upon itself and otherwise distort when subjected to high internal pressure. Such twisting of the hose as the pressure therein increases is highly objectionable and various attempts have been made to overcome this difficulty. The usual way of preventing such a hose from twisting under high internal pressure is to employ a ply con struction in which one ply of the hose is provided with wefts that extend helically in one direction and the other ply is woven with wefts that extend helically in the opposite direction. Such a hose having an inner ply and an outer ply is expensive to manufacture.

The present invention contemplates a novel woven tubular fabric in which the warp strands are disposed substantially as heretofore, but the weft strands instead of being disposed helically in the tubular fabric as heretofore, are so disposed in the fabric that they form weft rings in which each ring is made up of a plurality of circular weft coils laid side by side in the same shed of the fabric. These weft rings in the fabric are disposed at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the tubular fabric and have no pitch. Therefore the'novel hose of the present invention has practically no tendency to twist upon itself or elongate as the internal pressure therein increases. It will therefore be seen that by employing the construction of the present invention it is possible to produce a single ply woven tubular fabric which will be approximately as well balanced and as free from tendencies to twist and elongate under internal pressure as are the two ply tubular fabrics employed heretofore to prevent such distortion. Y V

The tubular 'fabric contemplated by the present invention can be woven on a circular loom such as employed heretofore and provided with=shed forming mechanism that operates in advance of the revolving shuttle, but it will bev necessary to modify the operation of such loom and particularly to control the formation of the shed so that the shuttle or shuttles will lay a number of circular weft coils in the same shed, and will then shift the shed so that a similar ring of circular weft coils will be layed in an adjacent shed. In this way one weft ring after another may be formed as the loom operates and the successive rings will be connected by a weft strand or weft strands extending laterally from one ring to another.

A loom which is peculiarly well adapted to weave the fabric of the present invention is disclosed and claimed in my application Serial No. 779,243, filed Qctober 11, 1947, for Circular loom and method of operating same.

The above and other features of the present invention will be further understod from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a more or less diagrammatic view of a tubular fabric woven in accordance with the present invention, the distance between the threads being shown exaggerated.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a short length of woven tubular fabric constructed in accordance with the present invention.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged plan view of the fabric of Fig. 2 and in which the warps form a plain weave. Fig. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of the fabric of Fig. 3 showing the weft coils in section.

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 3 except that the warps of Fig. 5 have a twill weave; and

Fig. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view of the fabric of Fig. 5.

In Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive of the drawings the warp threads ID are arranged in a plain weave known as one up and one down. So far as these warp threads are concerned they may be arranged in accordance with various known types of weaves.

The novel feature of the woven tubular fabric contemplated by the present invention resides in the construction whereby the fabric does not have the usual helically disposed weft threads, but in place thereof has weft rings I l disposed in the sheds formed by the warp threads. Each of these rings H is formed of a plurality of circular weft coils produced by laying two or more coils of a weft strand side by side in the same shed, and by then extending a short length of this weft strand laterally from one weft ring to the next as indicated by l2. Each weft ring II is made up of two or more weft coils l3 and these rings 1 I are shown in the drawings as made up of a dozen or more weft coils.

The construction shown in Figs. 5 and 6 of the drawing is substantially the same as in Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive, except that the warp threads M of Figs. 5 and 6 are disposed to form a twill weave of the construction known as two up one down.

3 The diflerent fabric constructions illustrated in the drawing are produced by a loom using a single shuttle and operated so that this shuttle will lay a number of circular weft coils [3 in the same shed, and then start operating in the next shed.

' The shuttle may operate to lay a single strand of yarn, or it may lay two or more strands side by side in the form of a non twisted ply construction to form the weft coils l3 and connecting or transfer strand l2.

It is also possible to weave the fabric of the present invention on a loom employing two or more shuttles. In this case, for a two shuttle loom, there would be two distinct strands one forming one set of coils and the other another set of coils to produce a weft ring I I, and there would be two connecting or transfer strands I! extending from one ring II to the next in spaced relation to each other. If three shuttles are used there will be three of these distinct strands making up the coils of a ring II and the transfer strands I2. I

The finished woven fabric looks very much like the ordinary tubular fabric woven of heavy warp and weft threads, when viewed from the exterior of the tube as shown in Fig. 2, but a close examination of the finished fabric will show that the wefts are not disposed helically in the fabric as is usual but form distinct rings that are disposed at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the tubular fabric. This construction is believed tobe new, and since the weft of the present fabric is not disposed helically in the fabric, the fabric herein disclosed will have a less tendency to turn upon itself and twist out of a straight line when subjected to a high internal pressurethan will a single ply fabric of the same weight but con- 4 structed in accordance Furthermore since each circular weft ring II is formed of a number of circular weft coils I; each ring will offer high resistance to expansion of the tubular fabric under internal pressure.

It will therefore be seen that a woven tubular fabric constructed in accordance with the present invention is well adapted to cope with high internal pressures.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. A woven tubular fabric formed of warp strands interwoven with successive weft rings, each ring comprising a plurality of circular weft coils laid side by side in the same shed and connected by the weft strand to other similar weft rings in adjacent sheds.

2. A woven tubular fabric that will not twist When subjected to high internal pressure and which is formed of warp strands interwoven with successive weft rings disposed at right angles to the tube axis, each ring comprising a plurality of circular weft coils laid side by side in the same shed and connected by a short length of weft strand that extends laterally to a weft ring in an adj acent shed.

3. A seamless woven tubular hose formed of warp strands interwoven with successive weft rings disposed at right angles to the axis of the hose, each ring comprising a plurality of circular weft coils laid side by side in the same shed and connected by the weft strand that forms such ring to other weft rings in adjacent sheds.

CHARLES SCHNEIDER COLE.

No references cited.

with the prior practice. 

